In the Family Way
by Catrin27
Summary: Ronon and Jen deal with the unexpected consequences of drinking too much of Zalenka's moonshine.


_Author's note: I don't know what has come over me. This little plot bunny just popped into my head today and I had to get it down on paper cause it just would not leave me alone. Apologies for any errors and for the absolutely nauseating level of fluffiness involved in this fic. I am working on something with a bit more action but its not really my forte. Anyway, hope you like and remember, please review. _

_Disclaimer: I own nothing, please don't sue. _

**In the Family Way**

Jen lay quietly in bed, trying not to wake the Satedan sleeping next to her. She hated sleeping on her side but the current size of her belly made this position one of the few comfortable ones she could manage.

Eight months into her pregnancy, Jen felt more like a beached whale than a woman. She was still working in the infirmary, though on slightly reduced hours. Desperate though she was for sleep after a long day of treating the new recruits, the little boy growing in her belly would not settle long enough for her to drop off.

Finally loosing her patience, Jen tried to rise quietly from the bed. As she sat at the edge, ready to get up, she felt a strong arm grabbing hers. "Where are you going?"

"I just need to take a walk. Your child" she said sharply, "will not stopping kicking my spleen long enough for me to get some rest."

Grunting, Ronon lifted himself to sit directly behind her, running his hands softly across her swollen abdomen. He loved seeing her grow large with his child, would never get tired of feeling his babe in her belly. "Wait a minute, I'll go with you."

"No need Ronon. I'm just going to do a few laps around the halls until he quiets down."

"I'm coming with you."

"Fine" she said, too tired to argue further.

Half an hour later the babe seemed to have gone to sleep. Making their way back to their quarters, Ronon asked Jen the question which had been on his mind for weeks now, since shortly after he had found out she was pregnant really.

* * *

_FLASHBACK TO SIX MONTHS PREVIOUSLY_

Jen took a deep breath as she rested her head again the edge of the toilet. This was the third day in a row she had been sick and she was pretty sure she knew what that meant. Combined with the tenderness in her breasts and her sudden aversion to chicken, she was actually damn sure what it meant.

She, Jennifer Keller of Chippewa Fall, little Ms. Goody-two-shoes, was pregnant. From a one-night stand with a overgrown alien no less. This was **not** how she had imagined her time in Atlantis would go.

Rising to rinse out her mouth and getting ready of the rest of her day, Jennifer tried to remember the night she had spent with the Satedan. There had been a party to celebrate a victory against someone she couldn't quite remember, where they had all had WAY too much of Zalenka's moonshine.

Her memories of the night were hazy, flashes coming back in excruciating detail at horribly inappropriate moments. She had seen Ronon in the mess the other day with a jello cup and was suddenly overcome with a vivid memory of his mouth exploring her body, arching against him as he tasted her and then it was gone leaving her standing awkwardly in the middle of the mess, face like a lobster. Yesterday in the hall, she had a flash of memory of her kissing her way down his toned stomach, tracing his scars with her tongue, only to be disrupted by Rodney walking straight into her, mumbling about power maximisation or something.

Dressed and ready for another day, Jen knew she had to tell people soon. Col Carter knew about the pregnancy but not about the father. Jen was grateful she hadn't pressed and had agreed to limit her off-world travel even more than normal. But today was the day. She had to tell Ronon.

Finishing her shift that evening, she was grateful to find Ronon on his own in the gym.

"Hi"

"Hey."

"Do you have a few minutes to talk?"

"Sure. What's up?" he asked. He knew she had been avoiding him recently, since their night together. He was scared after that night and knew he had been avoiding her as well. The idea of opening up to loving someone again was hard to accept. But he wanted to, for Jen.

"I… god this is hard… Ronon, do you remember that night a few months ago when we … well… you know?"

God she was cute when she blushed like that, he thought. "Yeah, I remember. Think maybe we should talk about it."

"Yeah, me too."

"Okay... well…"

"Actually Ronon, I need to say this. So please, can I go first?" she pleaded.

"Okay" he agreed, curious as to what she had to say that was so important.

"Well the thing is… see, I …we… that night… eugh… out with it then" she mumbled. "See… the thing is, I'm pregnant."

Peaking from behind her closed lids, Jennifer watched Ronon's face change, emotions whizzing by before she could even identify them.

He was in shock, had she just said what he thought she had? She was… carrying his child? "Fuck" he muttered as he shook his head in disbelief.

"I think that was what got us in this situation in the first place actually" she giggled, her nerves coming out in her laughter.

"Are you sure?"

Rather affronted by the question, she replied, "of course I'm sure. Do you honestly think I would be here if I wasn't?"

"No, I just… I don't know what to say."

"It's ok. It was a shock to me too." Sitting down beside him, she continued. "You know, we don't need to decide what to do right now. This wasn't planned but I am going to have this baby in about seven months time and you deserve to be involved, if that's what you want."

"I want" he growled. He softened then, reaching across to rest his hand across her lower abdomen. "I want".

* * *

_PRESENT _

Ronon knew that they had come a long way since that first night together. He had known deep down from the first moment he touched her that she was forever, but was never quite confident enough to say it and find out if she felt the same way. Since she had told him about the baby they had been getting to know one another, first as friends and eventually as more. His love for her grew deeper each day but they hadn't actually discussed what they were to one another, what would happen to them once the baby was born, all of which left him feeling increasingly uncertain as her due date came closer.

"Jen, once the baby is born. What then?"

"What do you mean?"

Having difficulty tryinf to decide where to start, he said "I over heard some of the Earth women talking a while ago about babies and how some people on Earth viewed it as dishonourable for a woman to have a baby without being bound first."

"Oh… well some people do think that way."

"Do you?"

"Sometimes. I was raised in a very conservative area, my family certainly thinks that way. But out here, I tend to think different rules have to apply." Nervous as to where this was going, she sought to re-assure him. "You know we don't have to, I mean… I don't expect you to stay, to marry me just because of the baby. I know this whole thing was unexpected."

"What!"

"I just mean, we don't have to make any commitments, you will always be a part of his life no matter what happens with us."

"What the HELL are you talking about woman? Why wouldn't I want to be bound to you?" This was definitely not the reaction he had been expecting to this conversation. Were Earth men really that crazy that they could abandon their own children and the women who bore them?

"It's just some men, on Earth that is, they think that women get pregnant to trap them into staying, to make them commit when they don't want to. I just… I'm not like that. I want you to have the option. You aren't obligated to stay with me, is all."

Swinging so quickly from rage to disbelief and back again, Ronon found himself unsure of how to react. "You're planet is weird," he muttered, trying to calm down. Entering her room, Ronon sat Jen on the bed, bringing the chair around so that he could sit in front of her. "Jen, I'm crazy about you. I love you. I want forever with you. Baby or no."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, but I don't want to push you. I need to know what you want."

"I want you Ronon Dex. Permanently."

"Good" he grunted as he leaned in to capture her lips. "That's settled then."

_THE END_


End file.
